Cattleya (syn. Laelia) praestans
 

First time blooming. :)
I bought this two years ago as a small three-bulb division. It reacted quite badly when I unpotted and mounted it on a piece of cork; it barely grew and even lost couple of leaves. I thought I might have killed this little guy. :(

But this year, all in sudden, it began to grow vigorously and the newest pseudobulb begin to swell up like a balloon and voila, a flower bud emerged! And it grew bigger and bigger and finally opened up yesterday. :biggrin: Now I am a happy man!

PS: Picture 1 and 2 are from yesterday when the bud began to open; 3 and 4 are taken today.

Love, love, love this little species but I've killed 2 of them. They definitely don't respond well to root disturbance - you've done an excellent job with it. Jealous here...it is gorgeous.

I'm going to get another one in the spring and give it one more try.

Very nice!

So pretty. Love the color.

Yes, that's great!

What a gorgeous little plant! I'm in love with mine so I bought another :D.


Mine loves Semi-Hydro and I got it as a NBS plant but not quite mature plant. Maybe younger plants are better since they are always throwing roots?